Leveraging Urban Digital Twins for Enhanced Flood Risk Management and Decision-Making in Smart Cities

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/Report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review

Abstract

Urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to hydrological extreme events, such as pluvial and fluvial floods, which are projected to become more frequent in many parts of the world due to climate change. Addressing these challenges requires cross-disciplinary approaches for sustainable and socio-economically balanced urban water management. This work introduces a technological framework for integrating flood risk management tools into Urban Digital Twins (UDT), focusing on the study area of Dresden, Germany. A 3D UDT web application was developed using geo-topographical and urban infrastructure data, supported by a comprehensive Urban Data Platform (UDP) which stores key inputs for runoff modeling, such as surface roughness and infiltration, enabling the automatic generation of 2D hydro-numeric models and processing pipelines. These integrated flood model utilizes real-time data, 2D-gridded precipitation forecasts or predefined climate scenarios to simulate flood impacts on the city. The results are visualized within the UDT for interactive vulnerability and damage assessments by the users. This framework accelerates decision-making processes, facilitating collaboration between public authorities, scientists, citizens, and industrial partners, while improving urban planning and flood resilience in the context of climate change.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBook of Extended Abstracts of the 41st IAHR World Congress, 2025
EditorsAdrian Wing-Keung Law, Jenn Wei Er
PublisherInternational Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research
Pages2193-2196
Number of pages4
ISBN (print)978-90-835589-5-0
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesProceedings of the IAHR World Congress
ISSN2521-7119

Conference

Title41st International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) World Congress
SubtitleInnovative Water Engineering for Sustainable Development
Abbreviated titleIAHR 2025
Conference number41
Duration22 - 27 June 2025
Website
Degree of recognitionInternational event
LocationSingapore EXPO
CitySingapore
CountrySingapore

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-6502-7157/work/217237256
ORCID /0000-0002-3729-0166/work/217237986

Keywords

Keywords

  • Flood Early Warning Systems, Flood Risk Management, Smart City, Urban Digital Twins